Vasaloppet on export

A conference was recently held in Changchun, China for the organizers of the Vasaloppet races in Japan, USA, China, and of course there were also several representatives of the management of Vasaloppet in Mora on site in Changchun.

- It is with pleasure that we can see that the Vasaloppet ambition to contribute to the health-care in society has had a breakthrough in several other places in the world, "said Jonas Bauer, president of Vasaloppet in Mora.

He stands on a podium looking out over the start of the seventh edition of Vasaloppet China, which was conducted on January 2.

This is the first time Jonas Bauer visits Changchun, a city of seven million inhabitants, about 800 km north of Beijing, which is the center of Vasaloppet in China.

- It's fun to see how the local management in Changchun uses Vasaloppet to contribute to greater fitness and thereby creates better health among the population"says Jonas, and continues:
- The key to Vasaloppet in China is not the race, but the fact that the ski tracks, which are made of artificial snow, are fleeced for three months during the winter so that the students of Changchun’s 21 universities get the chance to try skiing throughout the winter.

Jonas Bauer also notes that the brand Vasaloppet has contributed to an increase in cultural and business exchange between China and Sweden. An example of this is the Orsa Grönklitt Park, which in connection with the Vasaloppet days in China agreed on several joint projects with the tourism authority in the province of Jilin with 44 million inhabitants where Changchun is the provincial capital.